National Press Club and Webbmedia Group Partner to Offer Hands-On Digital Skills Training

WASHINGTON, DC -- (Marketwire) -- 01/12/12 -- Webbmedia Group and the National Press Club Journalism Institute today announced a partnership to train communications professionals. Beginning January, Webbmedia Group will offer weekly training sessions to National Press Club members and to the public on a variety of digital/ social media topics.

"While there is incredible demand for training in digital and social media, especially in the greater Washington, D.C. area, there are few opportunities to meet in-person and learn these critical new skills," said Amy Webb, CEO of Webbmedia Group. "We've been working with large corporations to provide training and strategy for the past five years and are thrilled to start offering hands-on training sessions directly to the public."

"This is a tremendous opportunity for National Press Club members and other Washington journalists to receive top-notch training in a convenient location that has more than a century of journalism history," said Rick Dunham, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute and Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle.

Training sessions will begin mid-January and will include a variety of topics (longer descriptions are below):

How to Write a Social Media Policy

10 Tech Trends for Q1

Finding Your Influencers and Your Audience

Digging Deep: Mining digital sources for critical information

Headline Writing Best Practices

Hey Blogger, It's Me...

Creating a Social Media Workflow and Editorial Calendar

Understanding Internet Memes and Creating Viral Content Opportunities

Most training will be hands-on and will include companion notes and other handouts. Class size will be limited to 25 for hands-on sessions and 100 for lecture-style sessions. Training will be geared for those in the communications field, including: journalists, PR/ marketing professionals, corporate communications directors, association directors, lawyers, lobbyists, government officials and academics. A complete training schedule can be found here: http://webbmediagroup.com/training-npc.

In addition, Webbmedia Group will now offer corporate training at the National Press Club Journalism Institute for organizations who wish to provide training to staff at an off-site facility. Individual training sessions as well as full or multi-day bootcamps can be coordinated. For more information on corporate training, please see: http://webbmediagroup.com/corporate-training.

Webbmedia Group is a digital media agency with two divisions: strategy consulting and training. The strategy group is managed by Amy Webb, and it spots early trends in emerging technology, develops the innovative digital ideas and solves organizational and workforce problems with creative digital solutions. Shaun Dakin, Managing Director, heads the training group.

Webbmedia Group trainers have lectured at various conferences, in university classrooms and for companies (Global 1000 and Fortune 500, as well as government, foundation, medical, media, public relations, banking, legal and many others) worldwide. The team uses a unique training methodology that involves intense research, personalization and experiential learning. Classes are coordinated to accommodate all levels of ability and trainers use graduated, hands-on activities to reinforce the skills being taught. Webbmedia Group provides immediately accessible lessons, so that attendees can apply their new skills to current work projects.

National Press Club Journalism Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit. Its mission is to train communications professionals in a changing media environment, provide scholarships to the next generation of journalists, recognize excellence in journalism, house the records of the history of journalism in the nation's capital and promote a free press, the cornerstone of a free society. With cutting edge facilities and extensive resources, the Institute is dedicated to providing timely and accurate information to working journalists and other members of the media community. The Bloomberg Center for Electronic Journalism enables the Institute to offer critical training programs in digital journalism and social media for individuals at all skill levels.

Training Session Descriptions:

How to Write a Social Media PolicyDescription: Your staff should be encouraged to experiment with and to use social media, as these networks have proved an indispensable part of our modern information landscape. But it is vitally important that your organization understands the risks associated with posting to networks and your official viewpoints on posting and reacting on social networks. In this session, we will discuss the basic structure of a social media policy, and we will talk through best practices with a lawyer who specializes in new media. In the second half of this session, we will work in small groups to create social media policies for your organization. Each attendee will receive a template and workbook to take back to their organizations. If you've been trying to write your own social media policy but have been procrastinating, you'll walk out of this short class with a usable template in hand. http://webbmediagroup.com/training-how-to-write-a-social-media-policy

10 Tech Trends for Q1Description: Learn about the most interesting emerging technologies coming to market in the next few months that stand to impact your work. This invigorating session will showcase ten tech trends that you need to know now. We'll explain what they are in plain English, why they matter to you and how you can leverage them to energize your work. We'll bring lots of show and tell items and gadgets, and you'll receive betas and trial versions to use on your own. http://webbmediagroup.com/training-how-to-write-a-social-media-policy

Understanding Internet Memes and Creating Viral Content OpportunitiesDescription: In 2010, Weiden+Kennedy not only put Old Spice back on the map, the agency helped make Old Spice the number one male body wash and deodorant in dollar and volume share in North America. And it all started with a quirky video. What was the secret to Old Spice's success? How can the Old Spice model be dissected and applied to news and other content? What makes an Internet Meme, and how can clients start developing the kinds of content that will deliver massive traffic? Bonus: What happens if your content becomes the meme itself? http://webbmediagroup.com/training-create-an-internet-meme